Sarah Robb O’Hagan is the Chief Executive Officer of the fast-growing indoor cycling company Flywheel Sports. Before her current role, Sarah has been global president at Gatorade—where she helped turn around the brand’s $5 billion business—and luxury fitness company Equinox, among others.
Sarah has also founded a movement she calls Extreme Living, which she outlines in her book Extreme YOU: Step Up. Stand Out. Kick Ass. Repeat. The book is a roadmap for individuals, teams and businesses who want to get the most out of their own unique capabilities. brandchannel had the chance to speak with Sarah about her latest work for Flywheel, her outlook on the boutique fitness category, and her advice to big and small brands alike.
What’s the outlook for the boutique fitness category overall, and how is Flywheel investing in customers experience as a part of that?
Not surprisingly, I’m very bullish on the boutique fitness category. If you look over the last five years, boutique fitness has been growing 400%, while traditional fitness has seen very low growth. There’s a lot of energy coming into the boutique space. I think what’s really interesting about it is that, yes, it’s bringing in these consumers who have been going to larger full-service gyms. But it’s also bringing in people who have never worked out in a traditional gym. It reminds of back in the 90s, when we all shopped at department stores, but have now moved over to specialty stores. That’s where the energy of retail is, and we’re seeing the same thing in fitness, and we’re at the very beginning of what it’s going to become. And I think what’s quite interesting right now is you’re starting to see more sophisticated investors trying to get into this space, because there’s a lot of tailwind in the fitness category. And so I’m excited to see fun specialty boutiques partner with big investors and grow even more, because I think that’s where the opportunity really lies.
Three riders who are coworkers, turned friends, turned FLY Fam: https://t.co/7ahdnegRyX
— Flywheel Sports® (@Flywheel) July 31, 2017
Building off of that, we’re curious to hear how you’re growing Flywheel Anywhere, your home-fitness cycling solution?
So we made the announcement that we’re taking this out to an omnichannel environment. Today we have 42 studios that are doing really well, and we’re bullish on the studio business. But there’s always going to be a limit on the number of points customers can reach with a brick-and-mortar offering. We know that expanding that experience into streaming content is really going to meet consumers where they are. Whether existing consumers want to have the Flywheel experience in their home, or we’re finding completely new customers who we would never be able to reach. So we really believe that the decision to extend into a streaming experience is one of wanting to be more available to more people who are interested in our kind of product.
Bring people together and give them a meaningful experience. That is what we are committed to doing at @Flywheel. #FlyFam #TeamExtreme pic.twitter.com/M2ilYuL1Hi
— Sarah Robb O'Hagan (@ExtremeSRO) July 29, 2017
You’ve worked with some astounding brands personally—Gatorade, Nike, Virgin, Equinox—what’s the common thread that helps all of these brands succeed?
First of all, I feel incredibly lucky that I have worked with some of these iconic, global, sustaining brands. I use those three words for a reason, because sustaining success on a global level and holding such iconic status for such a long time is a very hard thing to do. Gatorade, Nike, and Virgin, in particular, have set the tone for marketing the marketing community for decades. What do they have in common? A fierce focus on serving a very targeted consumer, not chasing the competition, but focusing on who they’ve identified as their consumer and relentlessly pushing themselves to meet their needs. Focus, focus, focus, and then willingly disrupting yourself—before the consumer expects more of you, create it for them.
What would you recommend to more-established organizations who are looking to disrupt themselves?
I am really lucky to have worked with such large, established organizations, as well as companies on more of a startup with scale like Flywheel. I think what’s tough is that in these really big companies, the bigger you get, the harder it is to grow. It’s harder to take bigger risks, because you have to defend what you already have. But I think for the biggest companies, it’s recognizing that not being disruptive to yourself and taking risks is not an option. If you don’t, there will always be a Breakthrough Brand coming around the corner to get you. I’d rather disrupt myself than have other people do it to me.
What do you think startups and established brands can learn from one another?
I think I think there’s a lot of rich material right there that a lot of people are missing today. Young people come into the workforce today and say, “I’d never work for a big company” or “I’d never work for a startup”. Yet there is so much both can learn from another, and there’s not enough of that happening. Startups in some respects are so much more used to being bold and disruptive, yet haven’t dealt with the layers of history and baggage that more established companies have and have to work through. Both of those are incredibly different and relevant skills which can be shared with each other.
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